The University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh announced Tuesday it is offering eligible faculty and staff a voluntary retirement buyout with a one-time payment equal to 50% of an employee's annual base salary.

UW-Oshkosh becomes the third campus within the UW System to offer buyouts in an effort to reduce its workforce in the face of state budget cuts. UW-Eau Claire was the first, followed last week by UW-Superior.

UW-Oshkosh expects about 100 employees would be eligible. It has set a goal of reducing its workforce by 80 within the next three years.(16)

Sharpe dressed receivers

Former Packers receiver Sterling Sharpe will present his brother, Shannon Sharpe, when Shannon is inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame on Saturday in Canton, Ohio.

Sterling is a studio analyst for the NFL Network, and Shannon (left) is a studio analyst for CBS Sports.

At 7 p.m. Tuesday, the NFL Network is scheduled to air "Sharpe Focus: Journey to Canton," a one-hour feature about the Sharpe brothers. It includes them returning to their hometown of Glennview, Ga., where they were raised by their grandmother, Mary Porter.

"I became the player, I became the person, I became the man that I am today because of that 1,000 square foot cinder block home," Shannon Sharpe says in the feature. "There’s no question in my mind I wouldn’t be where I am, sitting in this seat had it not been for her."

Incidentally, the very first SportsDay column that ran in this newspaper on April 2, 1995, the first item, took up a Hall of Fame topic as it related to Sterling Sharpe.

At the time, Sterling Sharpe said he would never be voted into the Hall of Fame because he declined to talk with reporters during his seven-year career in the league. Some consider seven years too brief a career to win HOF election, unless you are as brilliant from the get-go like Gale Sayers.

Hall of Fame electors at the time disputed Sterling’s contention, that being uncooperative to the press had a bearing on voting.

"He may be a jerk, but there are jerks in the Hall of Fame, very skilled jerks," said Hall of Fame voter Larry Felser, who covered the Buffalo Bills.

Said Jerry Magee, another elector: "All that matters is how you perform on the football field."

About Bob Wolfley

Bob Wolfley retired in October 2014 He wrote the SportsDay blog and column and about TV and radio issues.